Do I need to be a rocket scientist?
Do I need to be a rocket scientist? In his role as Chief Controller at Queenstown Tower, Clayton Lightfoot is often sought out by prospective air traffic control students for his advice about the ATC selection process.His advice? You need to be a well-rounded person with a good amount of common sense. “New Zealand air traffic controllers tend to be very dynamic in their thinking and their abilities. Around the rest of the world, airspace design and the flow of traffic is very modular and you do the same thing every day. In New Zealand, we have a lot of different things happening all the time and you have to be very flexible.”In this video about training and working as an air traffic controller at Airways, Clayton also shares his thoughts of...
What makes our people get out of bed in the morning?
At Airways, safety is our top priority – we’re 100% committed to keeping people safe in our skies. This sense of purpose unites us as an organisation, and well…what better reason to get out of bed in the morning?!However, dig a little deeper and you'll find that Airways is a New Zealand grown, innovative business making a real difference on the global stage. The breadth of activity we undertake means an enormous diversity of people make up Airways. We're genuinely a mixed bunch with a huge variety of careers on offer!For this video, we asked some of our people to talk about our uniting purpose and what it's like to be part of our progressive and enterprising organisation.Keen to find out more about working here? Check out our Careers secti...
What is air traffic control – a controller’s perspective
Shailendra Pandaram – “Panda” to his teammates – has worked for Airways as an air traffic controller for 20 years. These days, he’s a team leader, managing Airways’ enroute controllers. I’m an air traffic controller – so when I meet someone for the first time, a familiar blank look slips across their face. Only 350 people across this country are qualified to do this job, so it’s no wonder really. Often, people think that I’m from the crew on the runway waving those ping pong paddles at the pilot.Or that I’m that guy in the movies, leaping up and screaming at aircraft on my walkie talkie.It comes as a surprise, then, when they find out that my working environment is about as calm and serene as it gets – in fact it looks a bit more like thi...
The first pilotless plane – Would you book a seat?
One of the things I enjoy about my role at Airways is the opportunity to imagine air traffic control in 20 years – what it might look like, what technology will be in use and how people might be involved.With the current speed of technological change, it’s a real stretch of the imagination to look out even 10 let alone 20 years and a test of our creativity and ability to think outside the square. We do however need to take up the challenge as standing still simply isn’t an option in any business. Pilotless planes are one of the many exciting developments that have been talked about with RPAS and UAV operations demonstrating this could become a reality. There are many questions that the industry will have to resolve first such as, how they...
Just Culture critical in air traffic control
Airways’ business is ensuring safe and efficient skies across the 30 million square kilometres of our airspace. It’s about maintaining a ‘no critical safety incident’ record sheet and retaining our leading rating in the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO) top quartile for safety performance. In the aviation industry mistakes can have dire consequences. That’s why we’re so focused on ensuring they don’t happen - and it’s why I am passionate about the safety of the people who work for Airways and the safety of people who fly in New Zealand’s airspace. With safety at the very heart of our business we have taken a strong lead in the implementation of Just Culture standards in New Zealand and I’m pleased to see that the local avia...